C# - struggling with IDE0200/csharp_style_prefer_method_group_conversion

So came back to C# after several years. A lot has changed, still trying to recollect what I knew.

Using Visual Studio Pro Version 17.5.3. Created a new project and added Serilog for logging, but it wasn't working properly, so I am looking at their debug doc - https://github.com/serilog/serilog/wiki/Debugging-and-Diagnostics. The first code line

Serilog.Debugging.SelfLog.Enable(msg => Debug.WriteLine(msg));

Looks easy, passing a lambda to Enable. And this works as is if I open the project in vscode, when I dotnet build / dotnet run. Probably due to lack of auto-format configurations in vscode for now.

But Visual Studio seems to be formatting this line and is breaking the build.

I have a "default" .editorconfig generated at the solution level, and there's a rule in it - csharp_style_prefer_method_group_conversion = true:silent. This seems to be refactoring the lambda to become as

Serilog.Debugging.SelfLog.Enable(Debug.WriteLine);

(notice it's removing the args, and then the build fails because

Severity    Code    Description Project File    Line    Suppression State
Error   CS1618  Cannot create delegate with 'System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(string?)' because it or a method it overrides has a Conditional attribute   Library C:\Users\user\Work\C#\Library\Logger\Logger.cs  13  Active

I silenced the rule in .editorconfig for now - changed it to false:silent, but looking/hoping to understand how to solve it.

Are there any benefits to using a C# method group if available?

csharp_style_prefer_method_group_conversion

Solution

If you will change it to Serilog.Debugging.SelfLog.Enable(Console.WriteLine); it will work. Problem here is that Debug.WriteLine will not be emitted by compiler in non-debug build (see the [Conditional("DEBUG")] attribute), so while the first version will become no-op (i.e. something like () => {}, compare release and debug output @sharplab.io) for the second one compiler will not be able to emit something.